by Alfonz Juck
Ivana Spanovic, photo by PhotoRun.net
Ivana Spanovic 696 WL
BELGRADE (SRB, Feb 25): Top test within first time athletics competition in the Kombank Arena. The Balkan Indoor Championships brought World leading long jump by local star Ivana Spanovic with 696 cm. Towards next week important to note also Croatian pole vault record by Ivan Horvat 576 beating World indoor gold medalist Kostadinos Filippidis 571. Also Stipe Zunic 20.77 in shot put over Bosnian Mesud Pezer 20.12. In long jump Albanian record for Izmir Smajlaj 798. In women triple Greek Paraskevi Papahristou 14.19, Slovenian Tina Sutej 445 in pole vault and Bulgarian Radoslava Mavrodieva 18.10 in shot put over Emel Dereli of Turkey 17.80. Fast 7.63 national record in 60 m Hurdles by Milan Trajkovic, running for Cyprus. Another interesting win for Cyprus in high jump 225 by Vasilios Constantinou. For Serbia winners Elzan Bibic in the 3000 m national U20 record 8:06.98, Tamara Salaski 53.69 in the 400 m and Amela Terzic 4:13.14 in the 1500 m. Turkish wins Batuhan Altintas 46.92 in the 400 m and Tugba Guvenc 3000 m in 9:11.06. Bulgaria had the fastest sprinters with Denis Dimitrov 6.73 and Inna Eftimova 7.35. Women hurdles winner Elisavet Pesiridou posted 8.10 and in women high jump top three over 186 with Slovenian Marusa Cernjul winning ahead of Marija Vukovic of Montenegro and Croatian Ana Simic.
RunBlogRun opines: Ivana Spanovic is the finest European long jumper of her era. Her battle in Rio with Brittney Reese and Tianna Bartoletta was a profound epic long jump experience. In 2015, I had the privilege of observing Ms. Spanovic leap in Malmo, then, in Prague at the European Indoors. Spanovic is a long jump star and should be one of the highlights of Belgrade 2017.
